2017-JAN: Recent climate change measurements:

This topic is continued from the previous essay

₁

No. The world is not on fire.
This rather striking image is an exaggeration.

2017-JAN-18: 2016 was the hottest year on record -- ever:

NOAA and NASA held a joint press conference to report that 2016 was the hottest year on record since circa 1880 when surface temperature record keeping around the world began. This is the third year in a row that has set high temperature records!

A list of seventeen of the years with the highest average surface temperatures of Earth shows that 16 of them have occurred since the year 2000.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that the average temperature during 2016 was 1.1 ºC (or 2.0 ºF) higher than temperature that was observed before the world began to be industrialized. The maximum target established at the Paris Climate Agreement during 2015 was a rise of 1.5 ºC (or 2.7 ºF) above that level. So we are almost there already. ₂

Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO predicts:

"The temperature record is like going up a staircase. Now, with 2015 and 2016 [data], we've seemed to go up another step. We may oscillate around this higher level for a few years, but I don't think we'll ever go back to the values we've seen in previous years."

Eight months during 2016 set all-time highs for those months. July and August tied as the warmest months ever. On JAN-17, the total extent of sea ice around the world set a new mimimum value that hasn't been seen for perhaps the past few thousand years. Among the 17 warmest years on record, 16 occurred in the 21st century. ₃

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Webmaster's note: [bias alert]:

We may not be hearing many statements from either NOAA or NASA in the future. In late 2016-JAN, two days after their joint press conference, Donald Trump took his oath of office as the 45th President of the U.S. He has stated in the past the "alternative fact" ₄ that climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese government to create difficulties for American business. In the future, there may not be any NOAA or NASA scientists willing to report on the reality of climate change and thereby threaten their own future employment with the U.S. government.

NOAA releases land and ocean temperature graph for 2016:

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce released their graphic showing surface temperatures around the world on both land and oceans. There was one miniscule area of the South Atlantic located south-east of the southern tip of South America which had a record low temperature, and plenty of areas of the world which established all-time heat records:

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World temperature rise: 1880 to 2016:

CNN displayed the following graphic in early 2017-JAN. It superimposes temperatures as measured independently by four groups which are obviously in very close agreement. The groups are:

• NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies;
  
  
• Hadley Center/Climate Research Unit;
  
  
• NOAA National Center for Environmental Information;
  
  
• Kevin Cowatan & Robert Way. ₃

The graph's baseline temperature, shown as the horizontal line marked 0.0 ºC, is the average of temperatures over the interval 1951 to 1980.

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This topic continues in the next essay

References used:

The following information source was used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlink is not necessarily still active today.

1. Image: © Kevin Giszewski. Downloaded from Dreamstime Stock Photos.
2. "January 2016: Earth still on a hot streak," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2016-FEB-16, at: https://www.climate.gov/
3. Brandon Miller, "2016 was the hottest year on record -- again," CNN, 2017-JAN-18, at: http://www.cnn.com/
4. Thomas Sumner, "2016 shattered Earth's heat record," Science News, 2017-FEB-18, at: http://www.sciencenewsdigital.org/
5. An "alternative-fact" is false information, divorced from reality, that is intended to spread falehoods and sway opinions. There is only one truth. However, there can be many "alternative-facts."
6. Joe Romm, "We did it again! November is hottest on record," Think Progress, 2016-DEC-06, at: https://thinkprogress.org/

Copyright © 2017 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2017-JAN-20
Latest update: 2017-JUN-02
Author: B.A. Robinson

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